Howard Center and ACLU Demand Michigan Prisons End Unlawful Ban of Iconic Book on Structural Racism

The Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University School of Law and the ACLU of Michigan today sent a
letter to the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) demanding it removes
Black Skin, White Masks, a book by renowned race theorist Frantz
Fanon, from its banned-book list or face legal action. The letter
contends that the banning of
Black Skin, White Masks violates the U.S. Constitution, the Michigan Constitution, and MDOC’s own internal policies.

In 2000, MDOC instituted an unconstitutional ban from its prison libraries of
Black Skin, White Masks, which looks at the effects of racism on
the human psyche, citing unfounded concerns of “racial supremacy” as
grounds for removal, despite the fact that the book questions the
harmfulness of racial supremacy.

“Prison
systems have long banned books that seek to inspire and intellectually
liberate Black people. It is part of the deeply-entrenched, systemic
injustice that exists in our criminal justice
system,” said Justin Hansford, executive director of Howard
University’s Thurgood Marshall Center. “By banning
Black Skin, White Masks, MDOC is violating both the human rights and the constitutional rights of our community members who are locked in the system.”

Many
books that seek to educate people on structural racism are banned in
prisons across the United States, according to a report on prison
book-banning that the Thurgood Marshall Center will
release this fall. For example, The New Jim Crow was banned
until February 2018 in Florida because it “presented a security threat”
and was filled with “racial overtures.” Until last week,
Chokehold: Policing Black Men was banned in Arizona prisons. Police Brutality by Elijah Muhammad,
Political Prisoners, Prison and Black Liberation by Angela Davis, and Prison Industrial Complex for Beginners are still prohibited in Florida prisons.

“It
is incomprehensible to me that MDOC has banned a book that is not only
educational but restorative,” said Mireille Fanon-Mendes France,
decolonial activist and daughter
of Frantz Fanon, who partnered with the Center on the letter. “By his
practice and his commitments, my father Frantz Fanon sought to
understand what prevented human beings from standing up and to address
negative approaches. Both racialized and non-racialized
people have told me that reading Black Skin, White Masks brought them strength.”

The
letter contends that MDOC’s book banning practices violate the First
Amendment right to be free from arbitrary government censorship, as
incarcerated people do not abdicate all of their
First Amendment rights upon conviction. The Supreme Court has stated
that for a ban on a book to be constitutional, there must be a “‘valid,
rational connection’ between the prison regulation and the legitimate
governmental interest put forward to justify
it.” Furthermore, by banning an educational and rehabilitative book,
MDOC is also defying its own policy directives to “provide humane and
protective custodial care, [and] rehabilitative opportunities.”

“I’m
confident the MDOC will do the right thing and remove Fanon’s masterful
book on structural racism from its banned-book list,” said Michael J.
Steinberg, legal director of the American Civil
Liberties Union of Michigan. “Censoring this iconic work not only
violates the First Amendment, but it interferes with the rehabilitation
of people who are incarcerated.”

The
letter has been signed by a host of influential scholars, including
Cornel West, King Downing, and Neil Roberts, and organizations including
the National Lawyers Guild Mass Incarceration
Committee. The full list is pasted below.

This fall, the
Thurgood Marshall Center will release a major report documenting how
today’s overly punitive prison book banning policies relate to this
country’s long history of restricting literacy for
Black people. The report will also outline the path for departments of
correction in all 50 states to halt and rectify their book-banning
policies.

About the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University School of Law

The Thurgood
Marshall Civil Rights Center is the flagship setting for the study and
practice of civil rights law at Howard University, the leading
historically Black university in the United States. We seek
to expand civil rights, human rights, freedom, and equal justice under
the law by integrating legal advocacy, grassroots organizing, and
academic study. With the Human and Civil Rights Law Clinic, we engage in
strategic partnerships with national and local
organizations dedicated to litigating civil and human rights issues. We
also develop policy expertise to inform local and national activists
and advocates promote community-led campaigns.

About Mireille Fanon-Mendès France

Mireille
Fanon-Mendès-France is a French activist, president of the Frantz Fanon
International Foundation. She has written numerous articles on human
rights and international and humanitarian law, on the
process of radicalization and discrimination, on the coloniality of
power, knowledge and being. She has taught literature at the National
Education and Didactics at the Center for Continuing Education at Paris V
Descartes University and has been invited by
many universities to speak on legal issues, international law, and
conflict resolution. She also worked for UNESCO and the National
Assembly. In 2009, she received the Human Rights Award from the Council
for Justice, Equality and Peace. She is a member of
the French Jewish Union for Peace. Since 2011, she has been an expert
on the United Nations Working Group on People of African Descent, where
she served as Chair from 2014 to 2016.

About the ACLU of Michigan

For nearly 100
years, the ACLU has worked in courts, legislatures, and communities to
protect the constitutional rights of all people. With a nationwide
network of offices and millions of members and supporters,
we take up the toughest civil liberties fights. Beyond one person,
party, or side — we the people dare to create a more perfect union.
Learn more at
aclu.org.